Traitement des effluents d’huileries par un procédé combinant un traitement intensif (Jet‐Loop Reactor) suivi d’un traitement extensif (bassins de stabilisation): Treatment of olive mill wastewater by a process combining an intensive treatment (Jet‐Loop Reactor) followed by an extensive treatment (stabilization ponds)

Olive oil mill wastewater (OMW) is generally recognized as an environmentally troublesome by‐product of the olive oil industry as its disposal without any treatment is known to cause serious environmental problems. However, this effluent has a high fertilizing power and constitutes, with urban wastewater, an important low‐cost source. Biological treatment of OMW, with a process combining an aerobic reactor, ‘Jet‐Loop’, and waste stabilization ponds, was investigated for possible agricultural reuse. The focus of the present study was to evaluate the contribution and the complementarity of the two systems in the total OMW treatment. Bio‐treatment was performed using a 100‐litre Jet‐Loop reactor working volume achieving a chemical oxygen demand (COD) and phenolic compounds maximum removal rate of 72% and 68%, respectively, at a hydraulic retention time of 10 days. Co‐treatment of OMW and domestic wastewater in waste stabilization ponds, with a hydraulic retention time of 22 days, reached a global removal rat...